INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. cxv 



Paris, with General Haner, the delegate for Spain, as presi- 

 dent. The German, Russian, and Austrian empires, together 

 with Italy, Belgium, Roumania, Switzerland, and several 

 German states, were represented. No delegate was present 

 for Great Britain nor for the United States. 



The much-vexed question of the difference in level between 

 the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral has finally been settled by 

 the Russian Commission, which ascertained that the mean 

 height of the latter above the former is 242.77 feet, and 

 157 feet above the Black Sea. Heretofore the height of the 

 Aral above the Black Sea was supposed not to exceed 27 

 feet. 



The United States Hydrographic Office has published quite 

 a number of important papers ; among these may be men- 

 tioned the works of Lieutenant Gorringe on the Rio de la 

 Plata, and that of Commander George Dewey on the coast 

 of Lower California and Western Mexico, being the report of 

 the recent cruise of the Narragansett in that region. Im- 

 portant information is given here in regard to various points 

 on the coast, including the comparatively little-known Revil- 

 lagigedo Islands to the south of Lower California, of which 

 Socorro is the type. A report has been made by Lieutenant 

 George F. Totten upon the northwest coast of Spain, and 

 the coast of Portugal from Estaca to Cape Trafalgar. There 

 has also been printed a report upon the soundings of the 

 Tuscarora in the North Pacific Ocean. 



The Ocean and its Depths. The public attention is still di- 

 rected toward the movements of the British surveying-ship 

 Challenger, of which so frequent mention has been made 

 in the Annual Record. It is probable, however, that her 

 history will soon be closed, as she is expected to return to 

 Great Britain in the spring of 1876. So far she has carried 

 out fully the programme upon which she started several 

 years ago, with the exception, perhaps, of the omission of a 

 portion of the work assigned in the Aleutian Islands and on 

 the northwest coast of America. 



Taking up her history at the point to which we brought 

 it in the last Record, she left Port Nicholson on the 7th of 

 July, 1874, and proceeded under sail along the east coast of 

 New Zealand, and thence to .the Ivermadec Islands. She 

 reached Tongataboo on the 19th, from which she proceeded 



